How To Create A Great Weapon Fighter

Great Weapon Fighter Class Description

The Great Weapon Fighter in the Neverwinter MMORPG is a character class focused on tearing into large groups of enemies. Great Weapon Fighters can do a lot of damage to many enemies at once and can also damage single enemies quite quickly. They can’t withstand a lot of punishment but can deal a lot of damage. Great Weapon Fighters will make an ideal character for someone who wants to dance around the center of conflict, attacking groups of enemies, and then assisting the main tank in taking down the bosses.

Great Weapon Fighter Class Role Specifics

The Dungeons and Dragons 4e role that Great Weapon Fighters fit into is the Striker, also known as DPS (Damage Per Second). Great Weapon Fighters specifically focus on concentrating their efforts on many weaker enemies. Their mobility and ability to swing through many enemies at once makes them ideal for taking out the minions of the more powerful enemies. They favor offense over defense, using powers that cleave through foes and then dash away before enemies can focus on them.

Their primary method of defeating enemies is by charging in and doing a lot of damage quickly, such as using their ability Mighty Leap to jump in and surprise enemies with a powerful area of effect attack. Great Weapon Fighters should focus on the minions and weaker enemies in an encounter, and then they should move to fight whatever enemies are left. This is a vital tactic to use. Great Weapon Fighters have weaker defenses and can quickly become overwhelmed fighting many creatures.

Creating a Great Weapon Fighter

When you create a Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter, keep in mind the primary abilities that make a good Great Weapon Fighter:

Strength – This will determine the accuracy and power of your deadly attacks. The more damage a Great Weapon Fighter does, the less chance enemies have to catch up.

Constitution – I consider Constitution a must for a Great Weapon Fighter. Your Hit Points determine how much punishment you can take and the Great Weapon Fighter does not have great defenses.

Picking a Race for your Great Weapon Fighter

Next, you will need to select the race of the character you want to play. A couple of good choices for the Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter are Half-Orcs and Dwarves. These races may give you a slight advantage just starting out with their stat boosts. However, as you level, you can easily mitigate any advantage you may have had through assigning leveling points, feat points, and magic items. So don’t worry too much about what stats the race gives you.

Instead, choose a race that makes you happy, then look at the racial abilities they may offer, and lastly look to the ability bonuses the race may offer.

Rolling Dice for Ability Scores

You will roll virtual dice to determine starting ability scores. When you roll up your character, you can roll all you want. So make sure you keep rolling until you get the best stats possible for your Great Weapon Fighter. Strength should be maxed out, and Constitution should also be very high. If you can, try to get your character’s Dexterity to a good score. Your other ability points will affect your character some, but not much, and not as importantly as your two primary abilities.

When you level up these abilities throughout your career as a Great Weapon Fighter, you should put 1 point in Strength and 1 in Constitution every time.

Items and Gear for a Great Weapon Fighter

The items and gear in the game definitely help fine tune your Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter. As a Great Weapon Fighter you are can wear medium defensive armor; however, to be a successful Great Weapon Fighter your focus should be on your weapon. It is your primary tool of your trade so you want to make sure you keep it upgraded at all times to the highest possible damage. Also try to focus on items that grant Recovery and Power. Recovery will increase the speed you recover action points. This will allow you to use your nasty damaging Daily Powers more often. Power will increase the potency of your powers so they are more effective. With careful planning you’ll be able to kill enemies with one shot, minions at your level, and take down an enemy boss very quickly. This will be the key to a successful Great Weapon Fighter.

As a Great Weapon Fighter your purpose is to stay alive while taking out the smaller minions as fast as you can. Then turn to focus on the most powerful enemies. Try not to take the bosses on directly because you will take a beating. Leave boss fighting up to a Guardian Fighter. Instead, flank the enemy (this grants bonuses) and deal damage as fast as possible without getting the enemy’s attention. Make sure you are always stocked up on healing potions. They are relatively cheap and easy to use in the heat of combat, so use them liberally. Don’t wait too long to take a healing potion. When you get to half your hit points, make sure to take a healing potion. Remaining at the edges of battle, if you are playing your Great Weapon Fighter correctly, you will be able to pick your moments to move in and take out even the worst enemies.

You can also get short term buffs through collectibles bounties you will gather in each of the public areas. If you need the extra boost you can use these collectibles and turn them into the Bounty Boards to get items to use for short term bonuses. These will always relate to the area you are in so use them while you are in the area or for Foundry quests if they apply.

Also try to stockpile any potions you run across for the boss fights or other difficult areas. Taking a few potions for a fight can mean the difference between a miserable, drawn out failure and a quick resounding success!

Playing a Great Weapon Fighter

When you are playing a Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter, you should never lead the charge into battle when there is a Guardian Fighter around. If there is no Guardian Fighter around, tanking and charging duties will be the Great Weapon Fighter’s. Be careful as you move through dangerous areas and do not take any erroneous damage that can be avoided such as traps and burning areas.

The best strategy I found when playing a Great Weapon Fighter to use your powers of mobility and surprise to jump your enemies before they have a change to jump you. You definitely want to be on offense since it is by far the Great Weapon Fighter’s best tool.

Jump in and use an area of effect attack on the minions, and then turn and use your more powerful attacks on the bosses. If there are minions about that follow you to melee range keep using your area of effect powers to take them down quickly. This way you will quickly thin the numbers of enemies attacking you. A Great Weapon Fighter’s mobility makes it easy to avoid the attacks of one enemy.

When encountering a group of archers or ranged enemies that will not approach or follow you, use your mobility to get to them quickly and take them out. A Great Weapon Fighter’s defenses are OK but they will not stand up long to a barrage of minion attacks and the attention of a boss or leader enemy.

It is quite effective to start a challenging encounter by using the most damaging Encounter or Daily power that you have. This softens up your enemies and may even kill some. Once the combat is going, use everything you can to build up your action points quickly so you can use your Daily Powers as soon as they are charged. It is more important for Great Weapon Fighters to use their Daily Powers as often as possible so that their DPS (Damage Per Second) increases.

Companions of your Great Weapon Fighter

As you learn to play your Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter you will learn what you like and what you don’t. You will get a feel for your character and what may be a good complement to your style. This is where your companion choices will come into play.

Companions are the last thing these basic or Heroic guides will talk about. Heroic is level considered 1-30 in Neverwinter. Somewhere in your mid to late teens you will be able to afford a companion. There are many different ones to choose from but only a few real roles that they will serve.

I found that the best one for my Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter was a Healer aka Leader. They worked well to save on potion costs and could heal the abuse a Great Weapon Fighter takes from having weaker defenses.

The other choice would be a Striker companion such as a dog. Having a companion that will do the most damage can help finish off those minions that did not quite die or help damage the boss you are fighting. The extra damage this type of companion can offer will really speed things along. Though if you make a misstep or two you can quickly find yourself in dire straits. When you can afford two, this could be your second choice. Run around with your Striker companion until you get to a boss or tough area then switch to your healing companion. This technique works really well.

It will really depend on your style of playing with your Great Weapon Fighter. If you like to take your time, a Defender might suit you well. When it comes down to what companions are best suited for a Great Weapon Fighter, the first would be a healer, and the second should fit your play style.

Grouping as a Great Weapon Fighter

When you are playing a Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter, you will want to group with others for a lot of different reasons. Play your Great Weapon Fighter well and you can insure the group’s success. All classes can be played poorly but a well-played Great Weapon Fighter will really help a group dominate the masses of monsters in the quest they are running.

When a Great Weapon Fighter is in a group they will want to follow just behind the leader of the group if there is a Guardian Fighter. Otherwise, you may very well be the one that leads the group through. If you end up leading, make sure you have good heals or be prepared to dart away when things get ugly.

The Great Weapon Fighter’s main job is to deal damage to many enemies at once without getting hit themselves. This can be difficult but should be a goal of Great Weapon Fighters.

A Great Weapon Fighter should be ready to step up and tank if needed. They don’t make the best tanks but can pull it off in a pinch.

It’s important to know that a well-played Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter should focus on taking down the groups of weaker minions so the party can focus on the bosses of each encounter. This can be hard to do as there is more glory in fighting the boss then its cronies, but that is what Great Weapons Fighters are best at. It also doesn’t mean you won’t be fighting the bosses too; they just are not priority, so the party can properly focus.

In big fights where there may be lots of tougher enemies, you may need to jump in and help off tank something while the situation is handled. So make sure that you are aware of the battle and can switch between roles if you need to.

Remember to keep an eye on your other party members, especially the healers and controllers. If they get the attention of enemies then they will make great targets for you. Take care of them quickly to help the group succeed. This way they can get back to their primary jobs instead of trying to save their own hides.

Player Versus Player as a Great Weapon Fighter

Disclaimer of Bias: First off let me say that Dungeons and Dragons has never been, nor never should be, a game based on single player versus player battles. The whole point of Dungeons and Dragons is to bring players together in a group, not have them fight each other. To this end, each role in Dungeons and Dragons is meant to be part of a whole cohesive unit and when you break that up, each piece cannot be balanced due to the role they fill. Being able to kill something is a very narrow view of what makes a character. That is just one thing in a long list of things that makes any Dungeons and Dragons game and group successful. Player versus player is a bit blasphemous, in my opinion and goes against the true spirit of Dungeons and Dragons. However, group versus group battles are more reasonable and have a better chance of succeeding in balance. I will talk a little about both below.

Great Weapon Fighters in player versus player combat are devastating. Because of their damage potential and the ability to easily evade attacks from other classes, they are quite formidable. Their speed and mobility make them hard to target and allow them to get into a striking position themselves.

However, if a Great Weapon Fighter gets stunned or trapped in combat they can be quickly defeated by other classes. So keep moving and slicing through the crowds and you should do relatively well.

In group based player versus player combat, a Great Weapon Fighter can be effective, though with their focus on weak group AE’s instead of powerful single target attacks can make it difficult to combat a well-organized group. However if your group is also well organized they can watch your back and take out the enemies that you will assuredly draw out.

Overview of a Great Weapon Fighter

All in all a Great Weapon Fighter in Neverwinter can be a lot of fun to play. They are a very active and tactical class to play. If you like to jump around the fray and wreak havoc on your enemies, a Great Weapon Fighter may be just what you want to play. They are great at fighting large groups of weaker enemies and can use their mobility to survive tougher bosses.

Great Weapon Fighters have a good mix of area of attack and single target powers in the game but they are not as durable as a Guardian Fighter. You need to remain active and aware as a Great Weapon Fighter so you can fill the DPS or Tank roles in a battle should the need arise. Through the use of feats and Paragon abilities, you will be able to fine tune your Great Weapon Fighter into the specific kind of character you want for Neverwinter.

15 Comments

I play a GWF and your article sucks all you talk about basically is how the guardian fighter this and the guardian fighter that we’ll let me tell you how many times I’ve had to pick them if the ground cause they suck allot I thought this article was going to be helpful but it’s stupid I’m not a tank but I kill epic level enemy’s not as fast as the rest but at least I can do damage a guarding fighter didn’t do hardly any damage they just tank I can’t figure out why you talked about then most of all but left out all the other classes your article sucked

I’m sorry you have had some bad experiences with GF. This article is not about anyones skill to play. It is about what role the GWF should fit into. Mechanically speaking in the exact same situations GF is more durable than a GWF which means they should be the main focus and tank. GWF fill that roll if needed but don’t do it as well as a GF.

These beginner articles simply spell out what roles each class should fill. Then give a few ways for them to fill that roll well. When players fill their role well they are less of a liability to the group. It doesn’t mean that a GWF can’t substitute in for another role when needed.

I’m all for constructive comments on the guides I write but things need to remain civil. I’m also fine with disagreeing with my suggestions. Please post helpful tips and tricks to give players more info or specific direction with the class.

What I won’t allow is name calling or hostility. Those posts will be removed. Constant offenders may also be banned. So please, keep it friendly and share your insights on the class. I’m sure we all can contribute to help new players of Great Weapon Fighters.

Had long doubts to start a GWF but this article pushed me over the edge, just started 1, i think kiling adds in bossfights and occasionally tanking could be the challenge i am looking for in neverwinter. Thanks for the great article

Um this good starter info but id like to correct something the gwf is one of the classes that can deal punishment and take it, with rage full and good defense and life steal the gwf is a great class and does do massive dps and if anyone is looking how to setup their gwf u could msg me on kik Ethanthe1st.

Ppl do not expect low dps i can massive dps on the constant and for lia knowles build, she does not focus on lifesteal and tanking, she focuses on pure damage and has her party to make up for survivability and this isnt a build this is some starter info to see if u will like this class or not

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